Baltic Visitor

Visitors in Lithuania on September 1st may notice something slightly odd. For one day only, to mark the first day of the new school year, alcohol sales will be completely banned. This covers not only bars and restaurants, but hotel minibars and even ships flying Lithuanian flags.
Predictably, the move has upset restaurateurs and the Baltic [...]

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An article in the Estonian newspaper SL Ohtuleht – and summarised in English on the EuroTopics website – discusses the tougher alcohol licensing laws which have been in force in the country, and also the recent rises in the price of booze. The article argues that these moves are specifically designed to deter certain types [...]

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A Baltic Times article on tourism in Tallinn paints a fairly grim picture of an industry which has expanded too fast and cannot fill hotel rooms or attract enough staff. This year has seen a fall in tourist numbers and a drop in the average number of nights for which visitors stay – at [...]

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The Baltic Times reports on the court hearing which dealt with the British citizen who was arrested for urinating close to the Freedom Monument while his friends took photographs. He was not present in court, having been allowed to leave the country, and was fined €64 for a charge of ‘petty hooliganism’. Unsuprisingly, he was [...]

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This afternoon the author of Bonjour l’Estonie posted an article on the British visitors brought to Estonia by cheap flights since October 2003. It starts off as mildly comical (indirectly comparing the British invasion to the 14th century arrival of the Teutonic Order), moves through being depressingly accurate (with its portrait of drunken Brits abroad) [...]

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A few days ago, I reported on the arrest of seven Spanish and Portuguese tourists in Riga for damaging a Latvian flag while drunk. Since then, the post has received comments from a couple of friends of the arrested men. I decided to add a new post rather than just comment on the original one, [...]

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According to a report in the Baltic Times, seven foreign tourists have been arrested in Riga for damaging Latvian flags:
The men were visibly drunk, and officers found more damaged Latvian flags on them, but the vandals had managed to throw some of the flags in the river. The young men have been taken to a [...]

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